Archive:Age of young people leaving their parental household

Data extracted in August 2021

Planned article update: August 2022

Highlights

In 2020, young people in the EU left their parental home on average at the age of 26.4 years.

In 2020, Sweden recorded the lowest average age of young people leaving their parental home (17.5 years) and Croatia the highest (32.4 years).

In 2020, young women moved out of the parental home earlier than young men in almost all EU Member States.

Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)

Leaving the parental home is considered as a milestone in the transition from childhood to adulthood. The reasons behind this step may vary: from being materially independent to studying, working, moving in with a partner, getting married and having children, etc. However, the path to independence may not be straightforward and may happen, as will be shown in this article, at different ages across countries. This difference may reflect the dissimilar challenges that young people face across Europe, as well as the variety of cultural particularities in the different countries.

This article presents data on the average age of leaving the parental home in the European Union (EU) and in the EU Member States, as well as the candidate countries Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. Special attention is given to geographical and gender differences, as well as on the developments since 2010.

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Geographical differences

Map 1 indicates that in 2020, on average across the whole EU, young people left the parental home at the age of 26.4 years. This average, however, varies a lot among the EU Member States. Croatia, Slovakia, Italy, Malta and Portugal recorded the oldest average ages of leaving the parental home, with all five in the category 30 years and over. By contrast, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden showed the youngest average ages at less than 24 years. The lowest average age of young people leaving their parental household was observed in Sweden (17.5 years) and Luxembourg (19.8 years), while the highest was found in Croatia (32.4 years). Furthermore, including and the non-EU countries, appears that in western Balkans young people tend to leave their parental home later than in the other European regions, especially in Montenegro, where this happens at age of 33.3 years; North Macedonia and Serbia follow with an age of 32.1 and 31.2 years, respectively. In addition, looking in a broader perspective Map 1, it is evident, that in most northern and western countries, young people left home on average in their early twenties, while in most southern and eastern states the average age when leaving home was in the late twenties or early thirties.

Map 1: Estimated average age of young people leaving the parental household, 2019
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)

Gender differences

On average, young women moved out of the parental home earlier than young men in almost all considered countries and also at EU level (Figure 1). The only exception to this pattern was Sweden, where women did this at a slightly earlier age in comparison with men (0.1 years difference). Women leaving the parental home earlier than men may be a sign that women are more prone to joining their partner’s household or forming a multi-generational household with their husband’s parents.

Figure 1: Estimated average age of young people leaving the parental household by sex, 2019
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)

The gender gap between the average ages of leaving the parental home was 2.0 years at EU level in 2020. It was the largest in Romania (4.5 years), Bulgaria (4.2 years), and Croatia (3.1 years). However, considering also the candidate countries, the gap was larger in North Macedonia (7.3 years) and Serbia (5.3 years). By contrast, the gap was smallest in Sweden (0.1 years), the only country where women left home later than men, followed by Luxembourg (0.4 years) and Estonia (0.5 years). In addition to that, a strong positive correlation can be observed between the average age of young people leaving their parental household and the size of the gender gap: in countries where young people leave their parental household at higher ages, the gender difference is more pronounced.

Development over the years

Over the course of the ten-year period between 2010 and 2020, the average age of young people leaving their parental household in the EU slightly decreased, from 26.5 years in 2006 to 26.4 years in 2020. Moreover, this age did not vary much during this period (the annual changes have never exceeded 0.1 years).

Figure 2: Estimated average age of young people leaving the parental household, 2006 and 2019
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)

Despite the relative stability at EU level, the average age at which young people leave their parental household had a lot of fluctuation among the EU Member States. In 12 EU countries, it decreased between 2010 and 2020, with the largest decreases recorded in Estonia (from 24.4 to 22.1 years), Sweden (from 20.3 to 17.5 years) and Luxembourg (from 26.2 to 19.8 years). In other 12 EU countries, this average age increased; nonetheless, the increases were less sizable than the decreases. The highest increases between 2010 and 2020 were found in Ireland (from 25.1 to 28.1 years), Spain (from 28.4 to 29.8 years) and Croatia (from 31.0 to 32.4 years). In addition, Greece and Portugal also recorded increases of more than 1.0 years over the ten-year period between 2010 and 2020. Finally, in Bulgaria, Denmark and Austria the age of young people leaving the parental homes remained unchanged at 29.9, 21.2 and 25.5 years, respectively (although it varied to some extent over 2010-2020).

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Data sources

Source: Statistics presented in this article are derived from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The EU-LFS is the largest European household sample survey providing quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 and over. It covers residents in private households and excludes those in collective households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between the countries.

Reference period: Yearly results are obtained as averages of the four quarters in the year.

Coverage: The results from the EU-LFS currently cover all European Union Member States, the EFTA Member States of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, as well as the candidate countries Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. For Cyprus, the survey covers only the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. However, EU-LFS household data are not available for Iceland, Norway, Switzerland. This is the reason why statistics are not available in this article for these three countries.

Country codes: Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Czechia (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Croatia (HR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE), the United Kingdom (UK), Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Switzerland (CH), Montenegro (ME), North Macedonia (MK), Serbia (RS) and Turkey (TR).

European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of EU-27 Member States. If data are unavailable for a country, the calculation of the corresponding aggregates takes into account the data for the same country for the most recent period available. Such cases are indicated.

Detailed technical and methodological information on the EU-LFS can be found in five articles linked to the overview page EU labour force survey.

Methodological note

The average age at which young people leave home is an approximate measure based on whether or not respondents and their parents live in the same household. A calculation is made for each single year of age in the range from 15 to 34. In the calculation, the share of respondents living in households without their parents among the total population (separately for males and females) is taken into consideration. A so-called ‘exit probability’ for each single year of age in the range from 15 to 34 is calculated for the total, male and female populations. The exit probability equals the above-mentioned share minus the corresponding share for the preceding age (e.g. the share for the 16 year-old people minus the share for 15 year-old people). As 15 years is the starting point, its exit probability equals the share of people aged 15 years living without their parents of the total population aged 15 years. The calculation is made successively up to the age of 34.

Context

In addition to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is also a source of household statistics. The EU-SILC is a multi-purpose instrument which focuses mainly on income. However, information on housing conditions, social exclusion, labour and education is also collected.